


Second Shot

by LJ_Pynn



Category: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Heist, Humor, Infiltration, Other, Pirates, Robot/Human Relationships, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-07-18 04:41:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16111010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJ_Pynn/pseuds/LJ_Pynn
Summary: After disaster strikes on Kessel, Lando Calrissian finds himself, his ship, and his co-pilot in shambles. When he gets a surprising message that seems to be the answer to all of his problems, it's up to him to put the pieces of his life back together.





	1. Prologue

“Well, all things considered, I think we probably came out on top,” Lando said as he studied the the precious metal in his hand. 

“We’re lucky to have come out alive,” L3 said dryly as she retrieved the medical kit. “You couldn’t go five bloody minutes without nearly getting us killed? And for what? A rock?”

“Hey, it’s Haysian smelt. I’d say it’s worth a little cut,” He argued, barely peeking her way as she walked around to his back. He held the piece of gold to his eye, inspecting every detail of it. “At least a fifty thousand,” he estimated. While she removed his shirt, he began imagining all he would do with the quick cash he was sure to make. His fantasies were swiftly broken by a sharp pain when her metal digits poked at the open gash behind his shoulder. “Ow! Hey!” He shouted as he jerked his head around to give her a bothered look.    
  
“Oh, don’t whine now. It’s just a  _ little  _ ten centimeter laceration that was aimed for your jugular,” She frustratedly mocked him. “Only a  _ little cut _ that would have killed you if I wasn’t there to pull you out of harm’s way.”

“Fair point,” He nodded off her tone and pretended to go back to admiring his stolen goods. Instead, he was thinking about what she’d said. This wasn’t the first time she’d saved his life. In fact, he’d lost count at this point. She probably had the exact number, but he wasn’t going to ask. He didn’t want to distract her while she patched up his wound. Or maybe he didn’t want to make himself wonder why she continued to save him all these times. He was  _ Lando Calrissian,  _ after all. Anyone would would be honoured to he the his saviour, right? Maybe it was her programming. Something that slaved her to her organic owner. He didn’t like to think of it that way, though. There was definitely more to L3-37 than met the eye. Any other sentient being would have left him a long time ago. 


	2. A Pulse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lando reflects on his recent loss, but gets a surprise during his self-blaming.

Grief was something Lando rarely felt. Right now, it was to a level he’d only experienced once. He didn’t like to think of the day his Mother died but it was inevitable in these circumstances.  Tendrissa Calrissian was really the only person he’d lost in his life before. A few business associates and close acquaintances had met their fate since then, sure. But she was the only one that he’d allowed himself to stay close to. How could he not? She gave him this life, gave him everything when he was young. Over a quadrillion beings in the galaxy and she was the only one he was sure he’d loved. She’d at least gone peacefully. He made sure she was comfortable in her final days. It was all he could do for her then. 

This was different, though. L3 didn’t have the luxury of dying in her sleep as his Mother did. It’d happened so quick, yet painfully slow for both of them. Lando sat down onto the seat around the Dejarik table. From there, he moved what remained of her frame into his lap. She was cold. Lifeless. 

The image of her being blasted were still fresh in his memory. The feeling of her convulsing in his arms while she rambled, trying to understand what was going on. Her final words echoed in his head. 

_ “Lando? What’s happening to me?” _

He couldn’t answer before she’d completely shut down. That’s what hurt the most. He couldn’t offer her anything when it happened. He wasn’t even sure if she’d heard him desperately claiming that he’d fix her through all the chaos. Now she laid there silent in his arms. 

With the actuators of her neck shredded beyond any use, his hand moved to the back of her head to support it. He stared into her optical sensor. It felt eerie to have nothing looking back at him. His other fingers brushed over her vocabulator. He’d give anything to hear her voice again. If that were the case, she’d be scolding him once more over yet another job gone to hell, but at least it would be her.

His hand caressed the back plating of her head. He moved up the side of the round shell until he skin of his finger caught on a jagged piece of metal. His hand moved back out of reflex. Her head dropped back down. He looked at the lightly bloodied cut before turning her over to see what had caused it. His eyes shot closed at the sight of most of the metal shell missing from the back of her head. He knew the damage was bad from the beginning, but only now had time to inspect her in detail. Repairs would be impossible at this point with most of her left back on Kessel. Still, he wanted to know how extensive it all was. He let in a breath before finally opening his eyes to see it. 

Carefully, he hoisted her back onto the table. The same expensive table he’d yelled at her for spilling just a drop of oil on just a week ago. It didn’t matter now. Some clean table was the least of his worries. His hand hovered over her remains. There was even less than he’d initially thought left. Her shell was scorched with carbon scoring from the blast and covered with the dirt of the battlefield. There were a slew of mismatched wires and pistons, all burned and torn apart from the middle of her frame. Her left hand and right arm were both completely gone. Left behind with what they couldn’t drag to the ship.

He couldn’t believe he’d let something like this happen to her. Of all the things he’d kept in perfect shape, she was one he knew he couldn’t replace with a ton of credits. He could afford a new L3 unit easily, but it wouldn’t be her. 

He wanted to tell her everything was going to be alright. Of course he knew saying it was meaningless at this point. If he did, it’d mostly be for him anyway. What was left of her was just a pile of damaged parts. He wanted to stay there, but couldn’t bare the sight of her mangled body much further. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to move. He leaned over her, cradling her head in his arm and placing the most gentle kiss to the top. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. It wasn’t until he heard an alarm from the cockpit that he finally separated himself from her. There was a ton of dirt on his trousers. The same favourite pair L3 had hollered at him for distractedly admiring in the midst of a space battle. He didn’t even bother to brush them off.  Before he began to step away, he repeated the only words that could come to mind. 

“I’m sorry.”

 

\----------------------------------

  
“ _ The Calrissian Chronicles,  _ Chapter…” Lando said as he slowly leaned back in the captain’s chair. The glow of hyperspace around the Millennium Falcon dissipated, giving way to the blackness of normal space. A pinch of unsureness looked back at him in his holo-recording. 

“Why, you’ll have to forgive me. I forget what chapter we’re on. As you can see, the past few hours have been a bit rough,” He indicated to his scorched shoulder, which wore a hastily applied bandage around it. “Unfortunately getting shot in the back is the least of my worries today,” He paused, taking a troubled look around the cockpit. “The  _ Falcon  _ took more damage than I did,” He rotated in his seat, taking in all of the destruction to the inside of his ship that he hardly had time to notice before. His eyes stopped just next to the door and his indifferent expression fell to a common frown. He looked at her neural core, dangling from the manual interface. “Externally, of course,” he quietly added, not caring if the recording picked up his voice. 

With a breath, he turned to face the holo-device. “I actually lost something far more cherished today,” Feeling a growing lump in his throat, he looked down to his lap. He was unsure of what words to use, only now contemplating the truth he’d been distracting himself from. 

“My copilot…” he stopped himself. “My first mate…” he shook his head. “My friend…” none of it sounded right. He wasn’t sure what she was to him now. The nature of his feelings toward her were peculiar to him. They’d been at each other’s side for so long. Save for a night fueled by Hosnian Wine and curiosity, they’d had a pretty casual friendly relationship with each other. That’s how it was at first, at least. Over time, though, he knew things were changing. 

It started after a botched job. While she was scolding him over it, in fact. She went on and on about how he often he gets them trouble. About how he is constantly finding himself on the wrong side of a blaster. That’s when something clicked for Lando, at least. Nobody but himself or his Mother had really cared about his survival. But while she yelled and poked his wound, he realized that she cared too. She was more than a co-pilot. More than a friend.    
  
“L3,” he finally decided. “L3 was killed today. It was another job gone wrong. She was distracted in the commotion when she took a direct blaster cannon bolt.”

Just saying it hurt. The image of her blasted body hitting the ground flashed in his mind again. Then the sound of her frame shearing apart while he attempted to pull her to safety. He cringed.

“I wonder what type of pain a droid feels, if any,” his thoughts started to flow from his mouth.

“I heard her scream when she was hit. It sounded like pain. Did I hurt her when I tried to move her? After all she’s done to heal my wounds in the past, did I cause her pain?”

The mention of pain made him rub his wounded shoulder. He looked down at the burned flesh that peeked from behind the bandage. Another concerning thought emerged.

“Was the last thing she saw me getting shot?”

Lando replayed those dire seconds over in his head. It was just the two of them. It was nearly silent in his head. There was only his heavy breath and her rambling while programming went haywire. He wondered what she saw in all this. Was it all pain and violence? He tried to remember more. Blaster fire. Slaves fighting guards. Droids. Tons of droids running amok. _ “Revolution,”  _  he thought he heard her shout.

“She got her rebellion,” he said while the edge of his lip began to rise just a bit. He looked into the holo-lense. “Her coveted  _ ‘ _ droid rebellion’ _.  _ That’s what it was all about. Maybe she at least got what she wanted in the end. Maybe--” 

The alarm above his head began to sound a fast, erratically beeping tone. It sounded far from it’s normal alerting tone. Quick to action, he paused his recording and dropped the device into his lap. He swung the chair around. His hands landed on the manual controls, ready to face whatever danger might be afoot. With the ship in shambles, he’d be an easy target. He looked out the cockpit, scanning around the dark space. There was nothing but the glitter of distant stars and cosmic clouds light years away. The alarm continued until a firm tap to the ceiling seemed to silence it. 

“Well, add that to the list of things to fix,” Lando mumbled to himself, pulling the holo-device from his lap. He then placed it onto the console facing him. Once he reactivated it, is miniature blue mirror stared back at him. 

“Pardon the interruption. The ship’s not in good shape. Bad shape, in fact. I let some hotshot pilot for ten damn minutes and all of the money I sunk into this thing disappeared. I’d be dead, too, if it wasn’t for…” He paused for a second, “for L3.” He turned in his seat just enough for the recorder to pick up the view behind him. His hand pointed toward her neural core. “Even in death, she’s a hell of a navigator. I was able to pull her br… her neural core and hook it into the navigation system. Lando looked away from the recording and back to her again for just a second. “She’s part of the Falcon n--”

The beeping alarm started above him again. 

“Oh, what now?!” he moaned. He started to swing away and pause the recording again. Just before his thumb hit the button on the device, he spotted something peculiar in the image of his background. There was a red light flashing on the navigation panel. A red light he’d never seen before. That was even more bothersome, considering he knew every detail of this ship. 

“Hold on.” The device was paused and placed back onto the console. 

Standing from his seat, Lando approached the panel on the other side of the cockpit. The beeping continued from the ceiling. Just as he finally got close enough to study the light, both the flashing and the alarm cut out. He stood confused for a few seconds, aimlessly trying to study what was going on. Once again, they both restarted. They began to seem familiar. It was exactly the same repeating tones as before. This third time, the sound began to take on a noticeable pattern. The light was flashing in sync with the tone, now that he could see it up close. 

“That’s…” Lando whispered before quieting his breath. In silence, he studied the light and sound and it’s pattern. “Binary?”

The sound cut off prematurely this time. It stayed quiet for just a second before reactivating with a new pattern. He nodded, listening more. 

“This would be good time to know binary,” he spoke up. “L--” he forgetfully called before his eye caught her neural-core again. He shook his head and looked down to his feet. “You knew binary,” he muttered. 

The sounds stopped. The quick cutoff made him look back up to the navigation panel. The light and sound didn’t start again this time. His eyes shot back and forth between the dangling neural-core and the navigation panel. He finally stopped and raised his finger to poke at her. 

“ _ You  _ knew binary.”

The show of light and sound went for a short round, seemingly in response.

**_[01011001 01100101 01110011 00101110]_ **

Lando felt a strain in his stomach at that. She was plugged into the ship, sure, but she wasn’t-- she  _ couldn’t _ be communicating.

“L3?”

**_[01000001 01100110 01100110 01101001 01110010 01101101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01110110 01100101 00101110]_ **

Lando’s hands jumped to cover his smile. His eyes widened as he looked around the cockpit. There really must have been something of her left. She really was part of the ship now. 

**_[01010010 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100101 01100011 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 0001010 00101110]_ **

His smile fell.

“You know I don’t know binary, right?”

**_[01010011 01101111 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 0001010 00101110]_ **

He stared back at the panel.

“Look, baby. I don’t know what you’re saying, but just hold on. I’ve got an idea.”

He opened the cockpit door and began to step out. There was an eager expression on his face. 

“I’ll grab a translator!” 

**_[01001110 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100111 01100101 01101110 01101001 01110101 01110011 0001010 00101110]_ **

The console beeped at him as he strutted out of the room. It was probably for the best that he didn’t understand that last response. 

Surely there was a universal translator somewhere among their belongings. Lando’s mind began racing. She wasn’t really gone. Not completely at least. He raced down the short corridor. The rubber of his boots skidded to a stop when he saw L3’s scorched body still laying on the table. It cut into his excitement when reality set in just a bit. Maybe she wasn’t gone, but she was still far from her previous state.  _ If  _ that is  _ her  _ beeping at him in the cockpit and not just his imagination. It wouldn’t be the first time his imagination got the best over his rational thought. Of course, he  _ is  _ a gambler. Nothing’s impossible until Lando Calrissian can’t do it. 

Shaking it off, he continued past her toward maintenance storage. The door slid open at the press of a button. At least that still worked on the ship. The light inside, however, didn’t fair as well after their slim escape. It wasn’t much more than a square meter inside. Shelves surrounded the occupant in three sides. Only from the dim lights just outside were there barely silhouettes of everything. He began feeling around in the dark. Basically blind, his hands touched around for the lowest shelf. Once he was sure he was there, he knelt down to feel for the electronics basket. He was able to grab it and bring the entire thing back out to the light. It was a mess. Admittedly, it was mess she told him to clean and organize plenty of times, but that sounded to him like more of a  _ “whenever you get to it”  _ than a  _ “do it now in the case of dire emergency that can help save our lives if we’re ever maimed” _ .

Rummaging around the basket on the floor made him realize how much junk they’d gathered. Past all the outdated Imperial code cylinders, some silver headphones, and a voice modulator from an old Stormtrooper helmet sat what he was looking for. He fished out the holopad that could read out ship diagnostics in basic Aurebesh. Usually L3 would just plug in and audibly translate the binary codes. When he glanced over at her again, he realized why she insisted they keep the holopad. In any case, he was eager to rush back to the cockpit, but had to make a quick stop. 

  
Now rummaging around in another closet, he picked out an old red cape he’d not worn in years. It wasn’t for him, though. When he returned to the lounge, he was quick to drape it over her body. That was probably the most respectful thing to do. Or maybe it was just to stop him getting distracted every time he sees her there. With the holopad in-hand, he started toward the cockpit again when the electronics basket caught his eye. He walked over and slid it back into the closet with his foot. Even though she couldn’t see him, he still felt her annoyed glare at that from across the room and under the cape. 

“I’ll get to it,” he assured as he looked back in her direction. 

Lando’s hands trembled while he activated the holopad. The second he stepped foot back onto the cockpit, the quick binary greeted him.    
  
**_[01010100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101100 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100101 01101110 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 0001010 00101110]_ **

“Hold on,” he held a finger up to the nav panel. After punching in some specific settings to the holopad and pulling out the cable jack, he reached for the interfacing dock. Of course, it was currently occupied with an electronic brain. 

“Blast!” Lando realized he couldn’t plug in while she was still hanging there. Would yanking her pull her from the Falcon? Was she really  _ in  _ the ship, or was she still in the neural core? For that matter, he still wondered if it was her at all or if he was just crazy. He didn’t have much time to wonder before the interfacing dock started to buzz and turn on it’s own.    
**_  
_ ** **_[01001000 01101111 01101100 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 00101110]_ **

A quick series of beeps was emitted from the alarm and her brain came unlocked from the socket. Lando was able to catch it against the wall before it would hit the ground. The sound didn’t continue and the blinking light stayed dead. Now he held both her and the holopad in either hand. Given that it was a two-handed operation to plug in, he figured she’d be comfortable stuffed into his breast pocket. 

“Here goes nothing.”

With an unsure breath, he jacked into the ship with the holopad. The translator program booted up.

“Alright, baby. Talk to me.”

Aurebesh text began to print across the blue screen. His heart dropped in disappointment.

  
  
  


[ Corellian YT-1300 Series Light Freighter

 

Owner: Lando D. Calrissian

 

Navigation Manual Interface

 

Systems:  **Suboptimal** \-- Seek repairs ]

  
  


Lando shook his head. His eyes shut and his forehead rested against the wall. Once again, a gamble of his ended with letdown. With a sigh, he opened his eyes just enough to look down at her in his pocket. “I’m sorr…” he began to say before the holopad caught his eye again. A new series of text began to appear over it. 

**[** **_Just kidding. It’s me._ ** **]**

Lando’s eyes widened as he read the words back. 

“L3?”

**_[Calrissian]_ **

A thrilled chuckle began to fill the room. It was followed by a wide grin.

“Oh, you had me going for a second there, girl.”

**_[Did we win?]_ **

“What do you mean?”

**_[On Kessel.]_ **

“You don’t remember?” Lando raised an eyebrow. 

**_[I remember freeing some of those savagely treated droids. After that, some glitchy images of you and the wookiee, but nothing clear. Then I found myself here plugged into the Falcon’s nav systems and hearing your voice.]_ **

“Right…” Lando didn’t know exactly what to tell her. “You, uh… You…”

**_[What?]_ **

“I can’t tell if you’re joking. No memories of being hit by a blaster?”

**_[No. But I guess that would account for some memory loss.]_ **

“Well, I certainly remember it.” 

**_[Well, then I’d appreciate some answers.]_ **

Lando smirked at the holopad and shifted into a dramatic tone “After his brave copilot was blasted to the ground, Captain Calrissian rushed across an open battlefield to retrieve her! Dodging blaster fire from all around him, he quickly got them both onto the Millennium Falcon and single-handedly flew them away from Kessel.”

**_[Right, I’m sure that’s exactly what happened.]_ **

“More or less.”

**_[Where’d I get hit? If you’d reconnect me, I may like to start repairs.]_ **

Lando choked. “Well, about that…”

**_[Is it bad?]_ **

“You kinda got hit…”

**_[Get to the point.]_ **

“In the abdominal area. You got blown in half.”   
  
**_[From a blaster? Good one.]_ **

He didn’t respond.

**_[Lando.]_ **

“Blaster cannon.”

**_[Oh. That sounds bad. We’re gonna need an actual repair shop to put me back together, aren’t we?]_ **

“L3…”

**_[What is it?]_ **

He shook his head. “Only  _ half _ of you made it back onto the ship.” 

The holopad stayed blank. That didn’t surprise him. Such bad news usually made her quieter. Then again, the news was hardly ever  _ this  _ bad. Silence seemed appropriate, but he didn’t like it. 

“L3?”

**_[Okay.]_ **

That was even worse. “Well, I mean, it’s not all bad. Your body is fried, but you’re still here!” He grabbed the neural-core from his pocket. “We can get you hooked to a new body. I’ve got the credits to--”

**_[What about the Falcon? I’ve got readings of damage to the nav systems, but not much access to anything else.]_ **

“Well, the ship’s pretty badly damaged, too, but--”

**_[Then the ship needs more credits than I do.]_ **

Lando looked up from the holopad when the nav panel’s map screen lit up suddenly. A course was being laid in automatically. 

“Is that you, L--”, he began to ask when the ship’s frame started to creak. He looked back down at the pad.  The hyperdrive engines begin to prime. 

**_[Go. Launch the ship. I’m reading just enough fuel to make it.]_ **

“Make it where?”

**_[Takodana.]_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why, yes. I DID have to use a binary translator for that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> L3 thinks about life, death, and the future.

Technically speaking, this was a place she’d been before. She’d plugged into the ship countless times when she was in her body. While her mind wandered this constricted void, she looked on all that was familiar in it. Navigation controls. Simple ship diagnostics. None of it was conscious like her. There was something else that she recognized, though. Sound. Actual sound waves that she could hear, process, and understand. Without seeing it, she knew exactly what was going on around her. The sound of the hyperdrive humming told her that he had followed her orders to jump toward Takodana. The sound of levers being shifted and buttons being clicked told her that he was working to fix any small damages that he could in the cockpit. The sound of breathing told her that he was still alive. That he was still there. Hearing the truth of what had happened and why she was here was… simply an answer to the question of what had happened and why she was here.   
  
Death was a part of life. She’d always known it would come for her eventually. She knew it since her first boot-up. Everything has a limited amount of time in the galaxy. Even the galaxy itself would cease to exist some day. Some beings can live longer than others. Most organics didn’t live through a century or two. More evolved creatures were known to live whole millennia. Droids, properly maintained, could theoretically go on indefinitely but that was rarely the case for her kind. 

Of course, it didn’t matter how well-kept someone was if they were destined to meet a blaster bolt. L3 only believed that people make their own destiny. To her, it was like a destination that one was never aware they were getting to, but the choices they make and turns they take are what get you there in the end. In this line of work she chose, there was always a higher chance of meeting your destiny sooner than expected. She’d helped people meet theirs in a similar way in the past. Only when they threatened her with the same, though. The people she’s killed in the past chose to hold a blaster to someone who held their own and could pull a trigger quicker than they could. Death is what made life precious to her and she couldn’t see any logic in letting it end against one’s will. She never wondered how it would happen to her. It was only a matter of time. 

What had her mind racing was that no one ever knows when they’ve died. To be dead is to know nothing anymore. To be aware she had been killed was something she had a hard time processing. The different religions that organics followed always spoke of an afterlife. It was never something she believed in. It was supposed to be an ascension of one’s life to a higher state. This was different, though. The scope of her life was somehow both expanded beyond what she ever really knew and restricted in every right. It reminded her of hell. To be alive and yet have no control over what happens in life. To be the simple lifeless object she had spent her whole life working to convince the galaxy she and her kind weren’t. She was still herself, but she wasn’t her. She was a part of the Falcon now. She  _ is  _ the ship. No longer a being. One thing was certain to her, though: If this is hell, she’d brought herself here. 

 

“We’re coming up on Takodana!” Lando announced. She knew that, of course. She knew it even before the ship blasted back out into real space. 

“I’ll see if I can raise Maz,” he continued. 

That was usually her job. All the more menial jobs - establishing comms, checking fuel, keeping them on course - tended to be hers. He would only do the fancy flying. Mostly, at least. Sometimes she had to take over when he got a little  _ too  _ fancy and keep them from dying. 

‘ _ All the good that did’,  _ she thought. 

Now he’d have to take over double duty on half a ship. 

_ ‘I’m sure he’ll manage. Probably.’ _

“Dammit!” she heard him shout along with the sound of an eruption of sparks. 

_ ‘Then again…’  _ She knew that sound and again knew what he was going to say before he said it.

“Comms are down,” He said while putting out the electrical fire. “Blast, what  _ didn’t _ we lose?”

_ ‘Not much’  _ She set in a course to Maz Kanata’s castle from their position in high orbit. 

“Well, hopefully she’s alright with a friendly knock on her front door,” Lando quipped as he reoriented the ship along L3’s heading and easing down toward atmosphere. “Why don’t you go ahead and put together a list of what we’ll need to repair you on the holopad and we’ll see what she can spare up front.”

She spared no time thinking about it. Within seconds there was a list, along with approximate costs, and in order of necessity to get the Falcon back in shape neatly printed across the screen. She wasn’t sure what Maz might have on hand. Her castle didn’t serve as much of a mechanic’s shop. Maybe enough supplies to doctor up some internal systems, but not much in the way of major components they desperately needed. 

“I’m gonna go change,” he said while walking by the door. “A captain is only as good as he looks. Land the ship for me, will ya?”

He was already gone before she could get a word off. That is, several words she  _ would  _ get off if physically possible. She’s a conscious spacecraft for five minutes and already he’s commanding her around. 

_ ‘Bring my voice modulator back with you so you can hear the tone I want to take with you!’  _ she thought in a voice only she could hear. Silently grumbling to herself, she did as he said. It’d be faster to crash and kill him on principle, but he probably wouldn’t be able to learn a lesson from it. 

_ ‘Still…’  _ she convinced herself to at least jerk the ship to the side. 

She barely registered the “Ow! Right on the bad shoulder!” that followed the sound of him slamming into the wall. 

_ ‘Worth it.’ _

 

**\-- -- --**

 

The rest of the landing was smooth. Or at least as smooth as she could make in the husk of a ship that remained. In the first lucky break of the day, traffic at the castle seemed low and there was space to land just outside. She heard Lando approach again after a few minutes. 

**_[Took you long enough.]_** she printed on the holopad next to the parts list. He pulled it to his hands. _[_ ** _Fuchsia cape or olive?]_**

“Maz would be insulted if I weren’t wearing the burgundy she gave me,” he said while scrolling through the list. 

“L3?” he asked, sounding confused.

**_[Did I miss something?]_ **

“I don’t see your parts on here.”

**_[Well, technically…]_ **

Technically, that is what she printed. Still, she had a feeling she knew what he meant when he said that.

“I mean  _ your  _ parts.”

**_[Like I said, the ship needs the money put into it. And I am the ship now.]_ **

She told him what she truthfully meant. He wasn’t going to get anywhere with a cheaply refurbished droid and no working ship systems. Neither of them would. 

“ _ You  _ are a part of the ship, L3.”

**_[Right. Your new state-of-the-art nav system.]_ **

“No. You as you. As L3-37, my droid and co-pilot.”

**_[Oh,_ ** **your** **_droid?]_ **

_ ‘The nerve of this man’ _

“You know what I meant. Even if the ship was in perfect shape, I couldn’t get very far without someone in that other seat.”

_ ‘The absolute nerve!’ _

**_[We got_ ** **here** **_didn’t we?]_ **

“Oh, I’m sorry!” He sarcastically feigned. “I didn’t know my nav system was able to run every other part of the ship, too.”

He was right about that. She could fly the ship, but those other systems weren’t quite autonomous. He would need to replace her with someone. But who knew the ship as well as either of them did? 

It didn’t matter. Maybe some day she’d find herself back in a new body, but that was hardly priority. She wasn’t too keen on going back to a life of slavery to the organics, anyway. Well, at least not in the way she was before. No one expected anything from a simple navigational computer. She wouldn’t be the target of them anymore. Perhaps being stuck here as part of such a famous ship would bring her the respect she sought. 

**_[Look, just take it as a dying wish. Get the ship repaired. Let me stay in here, hire a new co-pilot, and if after all that is done and I_ ** **feel** **_like being a new droid, I’ll tell you. Just don’t hold your breath.]_ **

He stayed silent for a moment. She hoped that was enough to convince him.

“Is that what you really want?”

**_[I want what’s best for the ship. It was always my second priority aside from myself. And given where that got me and where I am now, the Falcon is what I care for.]_ **   
Lando sighed. She hated when he did that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little burst of inspiration came along after another viewing of 'Solo'. It's a short chapter, but at least it was something done.


End file.
